I find that a little cannabis helps a great deal. It improves my mood and appetite. It does help with the pain when taken in high enough doses, but that tends to make me veg out in front of cartoons eating doritos.

I have found that a little of this just before bed and i finally get a decent nights sleep. Although it doesn't seem to help with my pain it does let me relax for a change. it seems to be more helpful than the muscle relaxers they have me on.

I want and need pain relief BADLY. I take Ultram, neurontin, klonopin, robaxin and other meds and am still in SEVERE pain. I cannot find anyone in my area to get cannibus from. Can anyone offer any help?

I'm a hairstylist and the work is extemely hard on me. I've been in pain all of my life and thought it was normal. I got diagnosed with a rare disease called systemic mastocytosis three years ago. I was told that that disease wouldn't cause the pain I'm having. So now they think it's fibromyalgia as well. I have been on a lot of meds to try to conquer the pain and have little energy. I'm 35 and been raising my two sons for years on my own. Recently my older son went to college. My parents are sick. My brother has HIV so we're all moving in together to help out each other financially and emotionally. I've given up. I'm tired of having to support my household on my own. I hate losing my independence, but there comes a time when something has to give. I've had to file bankruptcy because I just can't work all of the time and I have to pay so much for drugs and doctors even though I have insurance. So I'm letting everything go in hopes of relieving stress and helping my pain and emotional pain. As far as cannabis If I have a hard day at work (sometimes I have to work 10 hours straight standing and doing hair) I come home and smoke some. It does help the pain tremendously. In fact, it helps better than morphine. I just become a bump on the couch though. I can't smoke it and work. It does help me relax and sleep well. I don't know what I'd do without it. It's the best pain reliever I've tried. You do have to get pretty blitzed for it to work. I do about twice a week before I go to bed.

I think I was self medicating even before I knew I had fm. About 2yrs ago I withdrew from a lot of daily activity due to the pain that no one believed I really had. I found when I got home at night and smoke a little, usually a couple of hits from a one-hitter, the pain was not as magnified and I could fall asleep. I finally went to the doc & got my diagnosis when I began to wake up and not be able to go back to sleep and the pain became unbearable during the day. And since my doc won't prescribe pain meds even though otc's don't work, I continue with the routine I established for myself. But I never smoke and go to work or run errands.

David.. A good source of info on medical use of cannabis is Americans for Safe Access (ASA) http://www.safeaccessnow.org/punbb/ . Check out their forum particularly under the topics of chronic pain and movement disorders. Please return to this forum to share the results with other FM patients on anything you find.
As you know there are many strains of marijuana and each have different medical efficacy, so speaking with other patients who have used medical cannabis might be helpful. ASA also has condition specific booklets on medical cannabis that patients can download and share with their physicians.

The patients I have spoken to consistently comment that cannabis greatly improves sleep and enables one to feel refreshed upon waking.

Yes David, I have tried cannabis for my fibromyalgia pain and insomnia, but alas I live in a state where it is not legal..any suggestions??? Helpppp...the Lyrica just doesn't work anymore! Thanks for any input.

Unfortunately, that is the ONLY thing that is effective for me in terms of sleep and pain. I take tramadol for pain, but pot is much faster. It also is the ONLY medication for sleep that does not leave me with a hangover the next day. All of the prescription meds for sleep make me useless the next day - hungover, exhausted, can't get out of bed... etc.

Good day! I tested this out a couple weeks ago, and it worked wonders! I had a moral dilemna in trying this because it's illegal in my state and I prefer obeying the laws of the land...I haven't touched alcohol or weed in 7 years and came out of an intensive outcare patient program from addiction to both...yes you can be addicted to the green stuff. Anyway, when you get to the place of crying every day, and every muscle feels like it is ripping off of your bones, you give in. 7 years, 11 different specialists, 2 chiros, 3 different physical therapists, and thousand of dollars, and a neurologist finally says, "go look up fibromyalgia online and see if you think you have it...I'm retiring tomorrow." Stinkin doctors. I just couldn't deal with the pain anymore, and decided that I wasn't trying to get "high" just take the pain away for at least and hour. Moreover I don't have insurance and taking other peoples pains meds is just as illegal so why not right? I baked some pretty good stuff in brownies, and had a SMALL peice every night for about a week and a half. The pain would be gone for at least 4 hours and I slept like a rock every night!!! I wasn't stupid(not like 2 oxycodone/1 soma every 4 hrs make you-which is what I was on for 4 months [- Try working with that in your system!! this is also what I was on before I lost my insurance.) I felt unbelievably stupid on the pills and couldn't remember anything, and I was still in pain? that sucks! Plus pills mess up your liver, stomach, and kidneys and effect your memory worse than weed...anyway, sorry for the long post, but this worked for me and I will probably do it again when I can't stand the pain again. Hope this helps, and you find some relief fast!

I just tried it for the first time in over 30 years and it did help my pain and my mood. I've been mainly in bed for the last four months due to fatigue and depression/pain. I believe it is a much safer drug than vicodin or many of the other drugs I'm prescribed. I intend to tell my rheumy of my results. Approx. 500,000 people die each year from prescription drugs taken as prescribed. Smoking pot is the least of my worries. How to find it is another story as I'm an old woman, slightly out of the loop if ya know what I mean.
Jacquie
Jacquie

My sister smokes it for her pain, she's in her late 50's and I just thought she was just enjoying it. So since I have fm, I decided to try it out, wow, I slept good and did not wake up on mixed up. I'm on cymbalta and trazodone, so when the pain in just too much and feel like I was to cross the path with a bus, I smoke some, and it relieves me pain. I do want to eat chips and veg looking at the tv but then I'm not a total crazy looney trying to get hit by the but because I feel so damn mizerable.

I was self-medicating with cannabis even before I was diagnosed. It was the only thing that took away the pain when I'd get home near tears b/c my legs were on fire or when I felt like I'd been between for a week straight. I haven't got up enough never yet to tell my doc I smoke it though. It doesn't make the pain disappear but it helps bring it down a few notches.

I was offered marijuana by my doctor (she suffers from FM and it is "legal" in my state) I am currently unemployed, but continue to hope I will be able to work again. I have always worked in drug testable jobs plus I have teenagers at home so I am hesitant to go that route. Instead I requested the prescription Marinol (THC) and found that it just made me feel sorta freaked out, short of breath, hungry and actually made it even more difficult to relax and sleep and had zero effect on my pain. Is there anyone out there who has tried both the prescription form of THC and natures version who could tell me how it affected them? I smoked "pot" in high school and don't remember it feeling like this THC pill did. I want to try to do my homework here in case I eventually find myself on disability and can be less concerned about it being federally illegal.

Oh the pills forms and the green stuff, I was prescribed the pills when I was going through chimo, to help with the nausea. The pill never worked right on me, I seep to not be able to tolerate it and I'm sick as a dog and even had an episode of I think I'm falling off my gurney in the middle of the night, the nurse called in the pharmacist on call and they had to give me something to counter effect those damn pills. I eat the green stuff in muffins and only eat small portions throughout the day, I don't feel stoned, and I can drive my car and I'm usually in a better mood and the pain seems to be not quite intense. I've been doing the muffin or chocolate instead of smoking it, that way I can do something useful in my day and not veg in front of the tv eating, beside my husband is against all drugs no matter what. I still eat it and can appear normal and don't seem to forget so much and I don't look stoned. Beside I've never smoke and I would be so sick if I tried smoking it. My sis gets it for her arthritis and I get the stuff for my MS. My doctor doesn't believe in giving me any pain management, except cymbalta and trazadone. So I'm left with my own device if I need more relief, the pills you can forget about those, try eating a bit of the muffin throughout the day, it will take a few days for you to feel the difference and then you will see some days seem to be easier then others. Good luck to you